regedit

[adl6009]

I have an old system.dat saved in a separate folder which I would like to read. I could right click on it, select open with and scroll down to regedit, but what I don't want to have happen is to merge the old one with my real system.dat.
Common sense says regedit would just open the file, but I just wanted to check.
Thanks.

[BFlurie]

Socalgal, Socalgal, Socalgal (email me your pic)..........
Just kidding. A registry .dat file like that will appear as jibberish in Notepad. It'll have to be exported by Regedit as a .reg or .txt file before it's readable. 6009, you'll have to do this in real DOS mode -- won't work in a DOS window. Restart in DOS mode, then type this to put it on your desktop:

Regedit /L:path/system.dat /e c:\windows\desktop\system.txt

where "path" is the path to the file location -- don't put any spaces in the above command line other than what's shown. BTW, a User.dat file can be exported the same way by substituting R for L above & specifying user.dat (obviously). You can name the exported file anything you want.

P.S. Sometimes regedit gives an error with this, but you should still get the whole thing as a readable file.

P.P.S. Don't use the command /C -- you'd be SORRY!!!!

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 07-15-2000).]

[psyklone]

yup, you could do that ... or if you wanted to look for a specific key or entry then it may be easier to do it in the regedit environment. restart in MSDOS and do an attrib -r -s -h on both your user.dat and system.dat.

rename them to system.da_ and user.da_ and then copy your old reg files (user.dat and system.dat) into your windows directory.

after that, start windows into safe mode by using the win/d:m command and once you're in safe mode you will be able to browse your old registry using regedit and it will not have changed. just remember not to start into normal windows with it like this. after you've exported any keys you wanted or just finished looking through the old reg, then shut the system down, restart in DOS, and then reverse the process.

cheers!

[socalgal]

Thanks for the *correct* way to do it, guys! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif